Nickel-Aluminum dry charge reserve batteries which can use a bipolar battery plate configuration are well known, and taught by U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,604 (Pollack et al.). There, a bonding material, such as a solder, was used to attach the negative cathode and the current collector cell separator. Zinc-silver oxide bipolar reserve batteries are also known, and taught by U.S. Pat. No. Re 25,913 (Solomon et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,332,804 (Zaromb). Use of a bipolar battery plate design requires careful selection of the central, bipolar, cell separator, current collector sheet, which must be electrically conductive, non-porous, lightweight, and non-reactive both to the active electrode system and to the electrolyte.
Silver electrodes and iron electrodes are well known, and taught by U.S. Pat. No. 4,792,505 (Moyes), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,101 (Jackovitz et al.), respectively. In the case of silver-iron batteries, a parallel, prismatic cell configuration has been standard, as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,125 (Brown), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,804,598 (Jackovitz et al.). Such parallel plate systems, however, require intercell connectors which are attached to the current collectors and which are a source of internal resistance, lowering electrical capacity and specific power. It would be highly advantageous to eliminate the intercell connectors in order to increase battery electrical capacity and specific power. It is the main object of this invention to provide such a design.